Gone Fishing
by BanditPonyta
Summary: I was challenged/Sentenced by Serenity984 to write a one shot with Matt as my focus character that doesn't cause Matt any harm, illness, betrayal, or punishment. It was really hard for me, but here it is.


A/N: This story sort of/kind of fits into the same universe as the 'Stop Light' series. But you don't have to read those ones to understand it… though I suggest you do if you haven't.

To fully understand the reasoning behind this, I suggest you read Serenity984's 'Fanfiction Writers'- A very fun story. Basically I have been found guilty of "placing Matt Ishida in dangerous situations, causing unnecessary stress upon his already stressful life, harassing him with rumours, and causing him great illness." Therefore I must: write a one shot with Matt as my focus character. "The story must be three hundred words or longer. The story can not cause Matt any harm, illness, betrayal, punishment."

I had some trouble with this one. Maybe I should have agreed to the hanging…

**Gone Fishing**

When Matt arrived at the usual crosswalk at the usual time, he found himself completely alone. Tai wasn't there with his usual boisterous 'good morning!' and Izzy wasn't there to pace nervously while he fretted over being late once again. Matt glanced around blankly for a moment, hopefully wondering if school had been cancelled. Before his mind could stray too far, his cell phone rang. A quick glance at the screen revealed that it was Izzy calling. Matt hit the answer button.

"Hey Izzy," Matt said coolly. Instead of a response, Matt heard a loud sneeze and then the sound of someone blowing their nose. Matt wrinkled his own nose at the sound.

"Matt…" said the very congested sounding voice of Izzy. "I can'd come to schoold today. Mom won't led me." Izzy went into a coughing fit then. "Can you ged my homework?" He said after a moment of choking on mucus.

"Sure, do you want me to tell Tai to get your homework for your science; he has the class right next door, doesn't he?"

"No… Tai's nod going to schoold. He's sick. Everyone's sick. Tai, Kari, Davis, Mimi, Sora… me… Not TK though… he's so lucky he geds to go to school."

"I'm sure he feels very lucky to be the only one going to school."

"Yeah…" Izzy trailed off, his illness had completely fogged over his mind.

"Right, well I'll get your homework and talk to you later."

Izzy sneezed a goodbye and Matt hung up. Matt shifted the weight of his school bag. _At least it's going to be a quiet day at school. _With that, Matt crossed safely through the crosswalk.

_

* * *

_

Matt's first few classes had been slow, but incredibly relaxing. Apparently most of the student body and teachers had come down with the sickness that was going around. In Matt's first class, only ten students were present and his teacher had such a headache from his fever he promised all ten students that he would give them all good marks for the semester as long as they stayed quiet and read the lesson to themselves. Matt went along with staying quiet, but went ahead and doodled on his textbook instead of actually reading it. The rest of his classes were similar and by the time lunch came around, Matt was very pleased to realize he hadn't been forced to learn anything that day. However, he found he was a bit bored at lunch and decided to give Tai a call to see how he was doing.

"Hello, hello," Tai answered cheerily.

"Tai?" Matt asked. His friend didn't sound sick at all, in fact he sounded to be in pretty good spirits.

"Hey Matt. How's it going?"

"Uh, fine. How are you?"

"Can't complain. I've just been sitting around playing video games all day."

"…OK… Aren't you sick?"

"No, I'm faking. Kari's sick though, she's on bed rest until her fever breaks. I, however, am playing Wii."

"But... what about everyone else? Mimi, Sora and Davis? Izzy said they were sick."

"Oh, yeah, they're all sick. I'm the only one just playing hooky."

"Why did I even come to school today?"

"That's a good question. So, what are you still doing in school Matt?"

"What?"

"_What_ are _you_ still doing in _school_?"

"I… I have no idea."

Ten minutes later Matt showed up at the nurse's office with a horrible headache and sore throat. The nurse (who was sneezing and coughing) agreed he should go home.

"What an awful day," she muttered to herself, "Kids coughing left and right. If they stayed home when they should, things like this wouldn't happen…"

Matt left her to her grumblings and quickly removed himself from the premises before anyone tried to actually check his temperature. A short time later he was knocking at Tai's front door. Tai opened it enthusiastically and handed Matt a fishing pole.

"Awesome, let's go," Tai shouldered his own pole and began to step out the door.

"Tai? What are you doing?" Matt asked, still staring blankly at the pole. Tai suddenly seemed to remember something and stepped back into his apartment.

"Kari! I'm going out! Don't die from your fever and don't touch my Wii. You'll get your germs on it!"

Matt thought he heard an angry retort come from somewhere inside, but Tai quickly shut the door.

"Um… Tai?" Matt questioned, staring at the fishing pole in his hand.

"Oh, don't worry. Her fever's not that bad, she's mostly just cranky from being inside all day. TK will probably come over later and cheer her up."

"Tai, why do I have a fishing pole?"

"Because you can't fish without a fishing pole, silly. Now come on, let's go." Tai grabbed Matt by the arm and dragged him down the hall.

"Where are we fishing exactly?" Matt asked.

"A river."

"What river?"

"The river that goes through the city."

"What? You mean the sewer?"

"No, the thing where there's water and there's probably fish."

"If you say so."

* * *

A few minutes later Matt found himself standing on a bridge and looking down at a minute amount of water and some weeds.

"Tai this isn't a river."

"What is it then? There's water, it's flowing… looks like a river to me."

"It's surrounded by concrete and who knows where it came from or where it's going."

Tai, however, was not listening to Matt. Instead he was casting a line over the side of the bridge. He began whistling loudly and tapping his foot. Instead of arguing, Matt decided to join.

"Aren't you supposed to put bait on the hook?" Matt asked looking at the end of his line.

"I don't know. I didn't bring any. Just cast it in like that."

Matt shrugged and cast his line alongside Tai's. The two boys stood silently for a moment. Tai suddenly cleared his throat.

"How long do you think this is going to take?"

"What do you mean?" Matt asked giving his pole a little tug.

"How long before we catch something?"

"You mean in the puddle of water that nothing lives in… I don't know… maybe an eternity." Matt smiled, feeling the ridiculous of their situation starting to amuse him.

"Maybe if we wiggle the poles around... that works in most fishing games," Tai suggested and then began twitching his pole back and forth.

"Yes, that's going to help us catch the nonexistent fish." Matt snorted a laugh when he realized Tai wasn't listening to him at all and was concentrating very hard on wiggling his pole. This went on for several minutes and Matt had to stop himself from laughing as Tai danced about with his fishing pole. Finally he decided it had been long enough.

"Tai, you know… I don't think there are any fish in here… really. It's been fun, but you're probably going to end up hurting yourself-"

"I GOT SOMETHING!" Tai suddenly screamed. "What do I do?!" He looked at Matt desperately.

"I don't know! How do you reel it in?!" Matt forgot his own pole and tried to assist Tai.

"Press 'A' repeatedly!"

"OK… how do you reel it in if it's not a video game?" Matt asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh! Uh… the little turny handle thing!" Tai shouted. Tai grabbed the 'little turny handle thing' and began turning it as fast as he could. Matt leaned over the bridge to see if he could see what Tai was reeling in. "It's stuck!" Tai suddenly cried.

"Here," Matt grabbed the pole, "On the count of three will both pull, OK?" Tai nodded.

"One," Matt counted slowly, "two… three!" On 'three' both boys pulled with all their might and the line was pulled free. The next thing Tai knew, he was being hit in the face with a very muddy shoe. Tai fell backwards with a not so manly scream and shielded himself with his arms from any further attacks by footwear. Matt stared at the shoe caught on Tai's line for a moment and then at Tai who was twitching on the ground with a shoeprint on his face. Matt couldn't help it, he burst out laughing. Tai, realizing what had happened, tried to look offended, but he couldn't keep himself from giggling as well. When Matt was finally able to get a hold of himself, he offered to help Tai up.

"Sorry, Tai, but that was priceless."

"Ha! And you said I wouldn't catch anything," Tai smiled smugly as Matt helped him up.

"Tai, it was a shoe… not a fish."

"But I did catch something! And you believed it was a fish!"

"What?"

"You said there were no fish, but the moment I said I had something, you thought it was a fish. You totally believed in the fish."

"Whatever, Tai." Matt went back to minding his own pole while Tai smiled and unhooked the shoe from his line. Tai was about to cast his line again, but then stopped. He studied Matt for a moment.

"I think we've fished enough. Want to go play video games?"

"Are you worried another shoe is going to attack you?"

"No, but this is a lot more boring than I thought it would be. It's much more fun in video game form."

"Yeah, OK," Matt reeled in his line and the two set off towards Tai's apartment. They were almost there when Matt turned to Tai and laughed.

"What is it?" Tai asked, startled by his friend's sudden laughter.

"The fish hook is stuck in your hair. How did you not notice that?"

"Must of broken off when I was violently attacked by that sneaker," Tai began feeling around in his hair, "Where is it?"

"It's tangled. We'll probably have to cut it out."

"NO! Not my hair!" Tai then bolted towards home. Matt followed, grabbing his sides from laughing.

* * *

Tai burst into his apartment shouting undiscernibly and ran straight for his bathroom. Matt followed through the door calling after him.

"I don't know, we might have to shave your head!"

"Hey, Matt!" A familiar voice greeted him as he came through the front door.

"Hey TK," Matt said with a smile.

"Did you have a good day?" TK asked, smiling to match his brother.

"Great day. What are you doing over here?"

"I heard Kari was sick, so I came over to keep her company and give her all her homework that she missed…" TK trailed off as his brother's smile faded.

"Homework?" Matt suddenly remembered. "Izzy's homework! I completely forgot it!"

THE END

A/N: I didn't realize I was going to have this done tonight. It just sort of happened. Eeep… 4am I have to go to work in four hours. Hope you enjoyed this little thing. Many thanks to Serenity984 for the bulk of the inspiration behind this. I know it was really pointless and didn't even have much story... but that is the best I can do without hurting Matt in any way. Hope you enjoyed. Write me a review and I'll write more stories quickly.


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